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''East Lynne'' is an English
sensation novel
The sensation novel, also sensation fiction, was a literary genre of fiction that achieved peak popularity in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s.I. Ousby ed., ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'' (1995) p. 844 Its literary forebears i ...
of 1861 by
Ellen Wood, writing as Mrs Henry Wood. A Victorian best-seller, it is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centring on infidelity and double identities. There have been numerous stage and film adaptations.
The much-quoted line "Gone! And never called me mother!" (variant: "Dead! Dead! And never called me mother!") does not appear in the book; both variants come from later stage adaptations.
The book was originally serialised in ''
The New Monthly Magazine
''The New Monthly Magazine'' was a British monthly magazine published from 1814 to 1884. It was founded by Henry Colburn and published by him through to 1845.
History
Colburn and Frederic Shoberl established ''The New Monthly Magazine and Univ ...
'' between January 1860 and September 1861, being issued as a
three-volume novel
The three-volume novel (sometimes three-decker or triple decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular litera ...
on 19 September 1861.
Oxford World's Classics
Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards (publisher), Grant Richards and purchased by OUP in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for student ...
edition.
Plot summary
Lady Isabel Vane is distraught when her beloved father dies suddenly and the earldom and all the property go to a distant relation, leaving her homeless and penniless. She is a beautiful and refined young woman, who (for lack of other options) marries the lawyer Archibald Carlyle who buys her former home, East Lynne.
Unfortunately his elder sister Cornelia also comes to live in East Lynne; she hates the marriage and, by taking over the household, makes Isabel's new life miserable. Mr Carlyle is a very kind man, who had previously had a friendship with local lady Barbara Hare, who had hoped to marry him. This creates an opportunity for jealousy and misunderstanding.
Isabel leaves her hard-working lawyer-husband and their infant children to elope with an aristocratic but poor Captain Francis Levison. This is because she jealously suspects her husband's friendship with Barbara Hare, and Levison misleads her into a wrong interpretation of a meeting between them. However, once abroad with Levison, Isabel realises he has no intention of marrying her, despite her having borne their illegitimate child. He deserts her.
Her cousin, Lord Mount Severn, comes to visit her in Europe and offers to support her. She finds out from him that her husband was ''not'' unfaithful. On the way back to England, there is a train accident; the baby is killed and Isabel, badly injured, is reported dead. Following this, Isabel is able—in disguise and under a new name—to take the position of governess in the household of her former husband and his new wife (Barbara Hare), allowing her to be close to her children.
This situation becomes a source of great misery, however, as the little boy William dies of tuberculosis. Mr Carlyle stands for Parliament, as does Sir Francis Levison, Isabel's seducer. It transpires that under the name Thorn, Levison had been guilty of the murder of Mr Hallijohn. But Richard Hare, the brother of Barbara, had been falsely accused of that murder and goes on the run.
When the facts eventually come to light, there is a hilarious and dramatic trial involving Afy Hallijohn as a reluctant witness. The pressure of keeping up a façade (e.g., wearing blue glasses, adopting a foreign accent) and being constantly reminded that her husband has moved on eventually physically weakens Isabel. On her deathbed she tells all to Carlyle, who forgives her.
Adaptations
There have been multiple adaptations for stage, radio, films and television.
''East Lynne'' has been adapted for the stage many times; the play was so popular that stock companies put on a performance whenever they needed guaranteed revenue.
It became so common that theatres stuck with a badly received play famously would assuage audiences with the hopeful promise, "Next week, ''East Lynne''!", which eventually became a punchline in comedies and cartoons, often as a sign outside a theatre. The play was staged so often that critic Sally Mitchell estimates some version was seen by audiences in either England or North America every week for over forty years.
[Mitchell (1984), xiii.]
A particularly effective use of the punchline is at the 59:10 mark of the 1936 movie,
Libeled Lady
''Libeled Lady'' is a 1936 screwball comedy film starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy, written by George Oppenheimer, Howard Emmett Rogers, Wallace Sullivan, and Maurine Dallas Watkins, and directed by Jack Conway ...
. In the scene, Gladys (
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...
's character) is riding in an open car with Haggerty (
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
's character). She is rehearsing the scene with which she hopes to trap Connie Allenbury (
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...
's character) into believing she has been trapped in a compromising position with Chandler (
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters cr ...
's character). Deliberately overacting, she says, "Connie Allenbury, you've taken from me the only thing I've ever loved. My husband!" She then turns to Haggarty and matter of factly asks, "How's that?" "Great", he replies, sarcastically. "Next week, East Lynne!"
The novel was first staged as ''Edith, or The Earl's Daughter'' in New York in 1861
[ and under its own name on 26 January 1863 in Brooklyn; by March of that year, "three competing versions were drawing crowds to New York theaters."] The most successful version was written by Clifton W. Tayleur for actress Lucille Western, who was paid $350 a night for her performance as Isabel Vane. Western starred in ''East Lynne'' for the next 10 years. At least nine adaptations were made in all, not including plays such as ''The Marriage Bells'' that "used a different title for the sake of some copyright protection."[Mitchell (1984), xiv.]
There have been many silent film versions of the book including a 1913 film. Another, starring Theda Bara
Theda Bara ( ; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress.
Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatal ...
, was made in 1916, and there was an Australian film six years later. In 1925, another version reached the screen which starred Alma Rubens
Alma Rubens (born Alma Genevieve Reubens; February 19, 1897 – January 21, 1931) was an American film actress and stage performer.
Rubens began her career in the mid 1910s. She quickly rose to stardom in 1916 after appearing opposite Douglas F ...
, Edmund Lowe
Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film.
Biography
Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...
, Lou Tellegen and Leslie Fenton
Leslie Fenton (12 March 1902 – 25 March 1978) was an English actor and film director. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1923 and 1945.
Early life
Fenton was born on 12 March 1902 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. He emigrated to ...
.
As the more melodramatic aspects of the story became dated, there were several parodies and burlesques made, including ''East Lynne in Bugville'' with Pearl White
Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. She began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials.
Dubbed the "Queen of ...
(1914), Mack Sennet's ''East Lynne with Variations'' (1917), and in 1931 the comedy ''East Lynne on the Western Front
''East Lynne on the Western Front'' is a 1931 British comedy film directed by George Pearson and starring Herbert Mundin, Mark Daly and Alf Goddard. It was made at the Lime Grove Studios.Wood p.71
Plot
During the First World War a group of B ...
'' in which British soldiers fighting in the World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
stage a burlesqued version of the story.
A radio adaptation in seven parts was made for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
by Michael Bakewell, with Rosemary Leach narrating as Mrs Wood, first broadcast in 1987.
1930 film
Leslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...
cited in the 7th edition of 'Halliwell's Film Guide', (page 325), that the 1930 feature film, ' Ex-Flame', (starring Neil Hamilton), was "A modernized version", providing "... Unintentional ...laughs". He went on to quote Variety (magazine)
''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', base ...
's contemporary review of it as "..Mush stuff for the women".
1931 film
A film version of ''East Lynne'' was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1931. The movie was adapted from the novel by Tom Barry and Bradley King and directed by Frank Lloyd
Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a British-born American film director, actor, scriptwriter, and producer. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its preside ...
. The film is a melodrama starring Ann Harding
Ann Harding (born Dorothy Walton Gatley; August 7, 1902 – September 1, 1981) was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress. A regular player on Broadway and in regional theater in the 1920s, in the 1930s Harding was ...
, Clive Brook
Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 November 1974) was an English film actor.
After making his first screen appearance in 1920, Brook emerged as a leading British actor in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States ...
, Conrad Nagel
John Conrad Nagel (March 16, 1897 – February 24, 1970) was an American film, stage, television and radio actor. He was considered a famous matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s. He was given an Academy Honorary Award in 1940 and ...
and Cecilia Loftus
Cecilia Loftus (born Marie Cecilia Loftus Brown; 22 October 1876 – 12 July 1943) was a Scottish actress, singer, mimic, vaudevillian, and music hall performer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Early life
Loftus was born in Glasgow, ...
. Only one copy of the film is known to exist. The screenplay was in turn novelized by Arline de Haas.
1952 film
The 1952 film ''Thai Ullam
''Thai Ullam'' () is a 1952 Indian Tamil-language film directed by K. Ramnoth. Starring V. Nagayya, Manohar and R. Ganesh, the film has music composed by Nagayya and A. Rama Rao. It is an adaptation of the 1861 novel '' East Lynne'', by Ellen ...
'' is a Tamil language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of P ...
adaptation of ''East Lynne''.
Television
In the 1970s a TV dramatisation was broadcast from The City Varieties Theatre in Leeds, with the audience all in Victorian costume and Queen Victoria in The Royal Box. The famous TV host of '' The Good Old Days'', Leonard Sachs
Leonard Meyer Sachs (26 September 1909 – 15 June 1990) was a South African-born British actor.
Life and career
Sachs was born in the town of Roodepoort, in the then Transvaal Colony, present day South Africa. He was Jewish. He emigrated t ...
, was present to introduce the proceedings.
The story was last refilmed in 1982, in a star-studded BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
made-for-television production starring amongst many others
Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw (born 21 January 1945) is an English actor. He came to national recognition as Doyle in ITV crime-action television drama series '' The Professionals'' (1977–1983). Further notable television parts include the title roles in '' ...
,
Gemma Craven
Rita Gemma Craven (''née'' Gabriel; born 1 June 1950) is an Irish actress.
She is best known for her role as Joan Parker, the frigid wife of Arthur (Bob Hoskins), in the BBC TV drama '' Pennies From Heaven'' (1978).
Biography
Craven's family ...
,
Lisa Eichhorn
Lisa Eichhorn (born February 4, 1952) is an American actress, writer and producer. She made her film debut in 1979 in the John Schlesinger film '' Yanks'', for which she received two Golden Globe nominations. Her international career has includ ...
,
Jane Asher
Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in f ...
,
Annette Crosbie
Annette Crosbie (born 12 February 1934) is a Scottish actor.[Annette Crosbie fil ...](_blank)
and
Tim Woodward
Timothy Oliver Woodward (born 24 April 1953) is an English actor.
Tim Woodward was born in Kensington, London, England, the son of actors Edward Woodward and Venetia Barrett. He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College.
He is pr ...
.
Critical assessment
Modern critics tend to impose their own, contemporary assessment on the work, and not consider it by its own standards. Some of this sort argue that the novel champions middle classes over the lower orders; others, however, find this claim "too simplistic"
[Mangham (2007), 136.] and argue that the novel "highlights the shortfalls inherent to bourgeois masculinity."
Sally Mitchell argues that the novel simultaneously upholds and undermines middle-class values.
[Mitchell (1984), vii.]
Other critics include the late nineteenth century English novelist
George Gissing
George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include '' The Nether World'' (1889), '' New Gr ...
, who read the book whilst staying in Rome in March 1898, wrote in his diary that it was "not at all a bad book, of its sort". Perhaps the most practical assessment came from one who produced the play many times,
Tod Slaughter
Norman Carter Slaughter (19 March 1885 – 19 February 1956), also known as Tod Slaughter, was an English actor, best known for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre film adaptations of Victorian melodramas.
Early life
Slaughter was born o ...
, the actor and theater manager. Norman Carter "Tod" Slaughter wrote: "No other play in its time has ever been more maligned, more burlesqued, more ridiculed, or consistently made more money".
[Pg. 55 "Mr. Murder : The life and times of Tod Slaughter". Denis Meikle 2019]
Legacy
The town of
East Lynne, Missouri took its name from the novel.
Notes
References
* Grilli Giorgia, "In volo, dietro la porta. Mary Poppins e Pamela Lyndon Travers". Società Editrice Il Ponte Vecchio. Cesena 1997 (ristampa 2002) 179–182
* Hughes, Winifred. ''The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s''. Princeton:
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...
, 1980.
* Mangham, Andrew. ''Violent Women and Sensation Fiction: Crime, Medicine and Victorian Popular Culture''. Hampshire and New York:
Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...
, 2007.
* Mitchell, Sally. Introduction. ''East Lynne''. 1861. Reprint. New Jersey:
Rutgers University Press, 1984.
* Pykett, Lyn. ''The "Improper" Feminine: The Women's Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing''. London and New York:
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
, 1992.
* Rosenman, Ellen. "'Mimic Sorrows': Masochism and the Gendering of Pain in Victorian Melodrama." ''Studies in the Novel'' 35 (March 2003): 22–43.
* Trodd, Anthea. ''Domestic Crime in the Victorian Novel''. New York:
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
, 1989.
* Wynne, Deborah. ''The Sensation Novel and the Victorian Family Magazine''. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
* ''The Ghost Train'' (1941 comedy film) A female character disparages her older brother, saying that "you sound like something out of ''East Lynne.'
External links
*
*
Review of a recent printing of East Lynne in the London Review of Books* {{IMDb title, 0158596, East Lynne (1982)
1861 British novels
English novels
Victorian novels
Novels by Ellen Wood
British novels adapted into films
Sensation novels